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Thursday, February 25, 2016 “TELL THE TRUTH AND DON’T BE AFRAID” C E L E B RATI NG A CE NT UR Y OF COVE RA GE E S T . 1 915
VOL. 100 | NO. 107 W W W . D A I L YE A S TE R N N E W S . C O M
Community to ‘Surround the Castle’ with love By Stephanie Markham Editor-in-Chief | @stephm202
JASON HOWELL | THE DAILY EASTERN NE WS
Residents of Taylor and Thomas Hall engage in a snowball fight on the South Quad as students took advantage of the day's snow day on Wednesday.
Classes canceled for safety reasons By Analicia Haynes Administration Editor | @Haynes1943 Classes were canceled Wednesday for the first time in two years because of heavy snowfall and high wind gusts. The National Weather Service in Lincoln reported blizzard conditions for Coles County. Residents can expect to see up to six inches of snowfall and wind gusts of up to 45 mph. Blair Lord, the vice president for academic affairs, made the decision to cancel classes and said it rarely happens at Eastern. “The running joke was that we never cancel classes,” Lord said. Unlike the public school system, Lord said the university does not have to bus people in and therefore students can easily make it to their classes. “We have a whole bunch of people living here, a significant portion of students on campus, so we want to provide them with their education,” Lord said. However, since there are students, faculty and
staff who have to commute from far distances, Lord said he had to think about student and employee safety. “I was up at 4:30 a.m. watching the National Weather Service and looking out my window trying to decide if classes would be canceled,” Lord said. Before 7 a.m., it started to snow heavily and Lord made the call to cancel classes. Lord said although people are expected to get to work, the decision to cancel classes was a judgment call based on safety. “Is it realistic to expect (employees and students) to make it to campus?” Lord said. Lord said the decision to cancel classes was also based on the timing and severity of the weather event. He said if the storm hit early in the morning then the morning classes would be canceled and if the storm happened in the afternoon then afternoon classes would be canceled. This one storm was really tricky, Lord said, because it was sudden and lasted all day. “It was just one of those calls,” Lord said. “We
had to make sure there was no struggle for people to get to campus.” Paul McCann, the interim vice president for business affairs, said safety is the university’s first priority, and they wanted to make sure their employees were safe to travel. Although the classes were canceled, the university was still open, and McCann said that is why he came to work. “We got a lot of things to do, and it doesn’t matter if it’s snowing out,” McCann said. McCann said the best place for students in this weather is their residence halls because it is warm. “In general, we prefer to have classes available so students have something to do and get the education they paid for,” Lord said. “At the end of the day, we make our best judgment but we always tell students to use their best judgment as well.” Analicia Haynes can be reached at 581-2812 or achaynes@eiu.edu.
Anyone who wants to show Eastern some love can participate in the “Surround the Castle” gathering at 2 p.m. Sunday outside of Old Main. Jana Johnson, development officer for WEIUTV, planned “Surround the Castle” and said everyone is invited to show support for the university. “No matter who you are, young or old, come,” she said. “This is not at all political; it’s just about loving each other. Let’s throw that out for this event, and let’s just have a good time.” Attendees are asked to bring a paper cutout heart with what Eastern means to them written on it. These notes will go to President David Glassman. She said people can feel free to use any colors and decorate the hearts however they like. “This is just an opportunity to let the president know that the community is behind Eastern and that the people that work here appreciate him, the students, faculty,” Johnson said. “It’s just a good time to show love.” Johnson said she had the idea for “Surround the Castle” after sharing her feelings about Eastern on social media. She posted that she felt sad for Eastern, because the layoffs and budget impasse had people scared, and she urged everyone to stay strong. After that, Charleston Mayor Brandon Combs reached out to her saying he believed in her message and wished there was more that could be done. Johnson then went to bed and woke up at about midnight with a clear vision of what she could do. “I woke up and I pictured from up above, if you were up in the sky above Old Main, that there were people totally surrounding it just to show how much they love the school,” she said. “And so I thought in my mind, ‘How can we do it?’ What came to mind was love.” She said after Combs speaks briefly, she would then address the crowd with words of encouragement and instructions to stand along the perimeter of Old Main on the nearby sidewalks.
CASTLE, page 6
Eastern experiences power outages, storm conditions By Stephanie Markham Editor-in-Chief | @stephm202 Central Illinois was under a blizzard warning most of Wednesday ending at 9 p.m. causing power outages and dangerous conditions throughout Charleston and other areas. The winter storm warning started at 6 a.m. but escalated to a blizzard warning as wind gusts of 45 to 50 mph combined with snow to produce near whiteout conditions, according to the National Weather Service. Eastern climatologist Cameron Craig said a lowpressure system from western Kentucky into southern Indiana and northern Ohio is responsible for bringing the snow. Craig said snow totals would range from 4 to 6 inches; however, he expects these conditions to be short-lived as temperatures rise to the 40s and 50s this weekend. Ameren spokeswoman Marcelyn Love said crews were dispatched to assess and restore power outages, but the weather slowed down progress to
some degree. Numbers varied throughout the day in Coles County from about 300 outages Wednesday morning to upwards of 6,000 by noon before dwindling back down. Love said additional personnel were called in to assist in repairing widespread infrastructure damage, as about 100 broken or leaning poles and 300 downed power lines were reported. Dan Ensen, director of the Coles County Emergency Management Agency, said the city of Charleston experienced a power outage Wednesday morning lasting about 20 minutes. He said because most of the county’s power outages were being attended to, they did not cause much disruption, and no shelters had to be opened. However, Ensen encourages people to have kits prepared in their homes and vehicles including non-perishable food, drinks and warm clothing and blankets in case they have to wait in an extended outage situation.
STORM, page 5
JASON HOWELL | THE DAILY EASTERN NE WS
An Eastern groundskeeper runs a snowplow on the sidewalk next to Buzzard Hall on Wednesday. Eastern climatologist Cameron Craig said that snow totals would vary between four and six inches throughout the area.